Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bale loading of a transport vehicle in an agricultural setting. The invention enables the lifting, flipping, rotating, and depositing of a mid-size or big bale from the ground in the field onto a wagon or vehicle for consolation into a load with other bales for transport from the field. The invention serves as a useful modification to existing bale transport vehicles such as the New Holland(trademark) stack wagon series and other vehicles that incorporate rear-hinged loading tables. The invention in its preferred embodiment allows the quick and easy conversion of a stack wagon from a small bale pickup and transport vehicle to a mid-size or big bale pickup and transport vehicle. The invention also allows quick and easy conversion back to a small bale pickup and transport vehicle from a mid-size or big bale pickup and transport vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
A number of big bale loading devices exist that can aid a person in loading wagons and other transport vehicles in the field. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,160 issued to Reist is disclosed a bale loading device. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,534 issued to Stevenson, the task of loading big bales and the conversion of a small bale stack wagon into a big bale stack wagon is also addressed. The prior devices are generally more cumbersome, bulky, and complex than the present invention. The present invention provides for a less complex loader and provides an efficient tool that should save time and labor costs over other existing loaders.
The present invention permits a novel lifting, flipping, rotating, and depositing of a bale in one continuous process from the ground onto and across a receiving table or surface of a vehicle.
A principal objective of this invention is to provide a novel and improved bale loading accessory that is lightweight, compact, simple, low-maintenance, and reliable for use in a system that permits a farmer or other user to reversibly modify an existing small bale pickup and transport vehicle into a more efficient agricultural tool. In the preferred embodiment, the accessory is easily attached to the vehicle by four bolts and by the connection of four hydraulic lines.
A further object of this invention involves a method of converting small bale stack wagons such as manufactured by New Holland North America, Inc. (New Holland) into vehicles capable of loading mid-size or big bales.
Another object of this invention is to provide an accessory that will lift and deposit bales lengthwise across a receiving table of a vehicle equipped with the invention.
Additional and various other objects and advantages attained by the invention will become more apparent as the specification is read and the accompanying figures are reviewed.
The loader in the preferred embodiment uses two hydraulic actuators and four quick connect hydraulic lines. Each actuator requires the hook up of two hydraulic lines. The four hydraulic lines are ones that on a preexisting New Holland(trademark) stack wagon are used to power two hydraulic devices that are associated with the operation of its small bale pickup device. The control of the invention""s actuators may be accomplished by use of the same controls that would be used on an unmodified small bale stack wagon to control two hydraulic devices.
The present invention overcomes a significant problem that is encountered by many other loading devices. This significant problem is complex attachment to the wagon or vehicle. The present invention uses simple nuts and bolts and quick connect hydraulic lines to facilitate easy and reversible conversion of a preexisting stack wagon from a small bale loading wagon to a mid-size and big bale loading wagon and back to a small bale loading wagon. The invention allows the user to quickly and easily configure the wagon either as a small bale loading wagon or a mid-size or big bale loading wagon. After the modification as taught herein, subsequent conversion to or from one configuration to the other can be rapidly and easily accomplished.
Use of the accessory allows the stack wagon operator to approach bales in the field from their ends, the same orientation as the bales obtained when deposited on the ground by the baler that formed them as it progressed along a similar track to that now taken by the stack wagon. The accessory receives each bale with its longitudinal axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the wagon (along the course of advance of the stack wagon in the field). The accessory then lifts, flips, rotates, and deposits the bale onto the wagon with the longitudinal axis of the bale after loading then being oriented perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the stack wagon and parallel to the plane of the receiving table or receiving surface of the wagon or transport vehicle.
Use of the invention allows the bales to be placed in the orientation across the receiving table without the need of a complex turn table. Bales laying on their strings in the field can be retrieved from the field with a New Holland(trademark) stack wagon or similar vehicle that has been modified and been equipped with the present invention and thereafter deposited in stable stacks again resting on their strings in the storage area. After deposit, the bales in the stack can be approached from the same side accessed by the vehicle when it deposited the bales.
The accessory in its preferred embodiment is mounted to and from a preexisting vehicle. When a New Holland(copyright) small bale stack wagon is modified, its preexisting small bale loader is unmounted from the vehicle before the instant invention is mounted. Generally a mounting fixture is attached to the vehicle preferably using nuts and bolts and then the invention is attached to the mounting fixture by using a plurality of bolts. The preferred embodiment uses hydraulic actuators, but other comparable devices including pneumatic actuators could be used.